-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.aci.net/kalliste/ <A HREF="http://www.aci.net/kalliste/">The Home Page of J. Orlin Grabbe</A> ----- Today's Lesson From Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson Consequently each wire in a running computer is like a little radio transmitter. The signals that it broadcasts are completely dependent upon the details of what's going on inside the machine. Since there are a lot of wires in there, and the particulars of what they are doing are fairly unpredictable, it is difficult for anyone monitoring the transmissions to make head or tail of them. A great deal of what comes out of the machine is completely irrelevant from a surveillance point of view. But there is one pattern of signals that is (1) totally predictable and (2) exactly what Pekka wants to see, and that is the stream of bytes being read from the screen buffer and sent down the wire to the screen hardware. Amid all the random noise coming from the machine, the ticks of the horizontal and vertical retrace intervals will stand out as clearly as the beating of a drum in a teeming jungle. Now that Pekka has zeroed in on that beat, he should be able to pick up the radiation emanating from the wire that connects screen buffer to video hardware, and translate it back into a sequence of ones and zeroes that can be dumped out onto their own screen. They will be able to see exactly what Tom Howard sees, through the kind of surveillance called Van Eck phreaking. ===== Japanese Culture Japan Resurrects World War II Symbols Rising-Sun Flag and Hymn to Emperor show rising nationalism. TOKYO - Parliament on Monday overwhelmingly confirmed Japan's rising-sun flag and a hymn to the emperor as the country's official symbols - and symbols, on a larger scale, of a shift toward conservatism. While convoys of rightists rode through the streets of Tokyo shouting nationalist slogans and leftists protested outside Parliament, the upper house voted, 166 to 71, in favor of a law recognizing the legality of both the flag and the anthem as representing the Japanese people and state. The vote, following easy passage of the same bill in the lower house last month, means that as of Friday, when Parliament adjourns, both the flag and the hymn will no longer be merely de facto emblems of Japan. Officials say that citizens will not have to sing the anthem and bow before the flag with the zeal they were required to display in the years of imperial rule until the end of World War II, but Japan's leaders have made plain the nationalist sentiment behind the bill. Both the flag and anthem ''have long histories and have already taken hold under customary law,'' Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi said. ''It is very significant that they are now grounded in written law shortly before the start of the 21st century,'' Mr. Obuchi said. Teachers in particular have strongly opposed the anthem, contending that it evokes the 1930s and early 1940s, when Japanese troops conquered much of China and Southeast Asia. Protesters on Monday carried signs denouncing the bill, and one burned a flag outside a government building. While Japanese routinely accept the flag, critics saw passage of the bill as a milestone on the way to a new order. ''It's very dangerous,'' said Sachiko Hayashi, a recent college graduate working for a large company. ''It's a step on the way to remilitarization.'' The bill, however, sailed through Parliament at a time of mounting concern here about Japanese defense policies, the military aims of nearby nations and an economy mired in seemingly intractable problems. Conservative forces led by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, in power for all but a few of the last 40 years, ensured easy passage of the measure. A coalition dominated by the LDP, supported by the Buddhist-backed Komeito Party and the Liberal Party, actually a rightist grouping, supported the bill against strong objections only from the Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party. Legalization of the flag, a red circle symbolizing the sun on a white field, appeared far less controversial than that of the anthem, which appears to grant almost holy status to the emperor for the first time since the defeat of Imperial Japan in 1945. A poll conducted by the Japan Times last week showed that 89 of 100 people questioned approved of the flag while only 58 of 100 wanted the hymn to be the national anthem. The formal name of the anthem, ''Kimigayo,'' is translated as ''His Majesty's Reign,'' and the verse in translation venerates the emperor, who was officially a holy figure enshrined as a god in the Shinto religion until the Japanese defeat. ''Thousands of years of happy reign be thine,'' reads one verse in translation. ''Rule on, my lord, till what are pebbles now/ By age united to mighty rocks shall grow/ Whose venerable sides the moss doth line.'' The law was passed against the background of a wider debate about whether to revise the ''peace constitution'' adopted during the U.S. occupation of Japan under General Douglas MacArthur after World War II. The constitution forbids sending Japanese troops to fight overseas, a stipulation that many conservatives see as an outdated infringement on Japanese sovereignty. Parliament is forming panels to study the need for constitutional changes, a hesitant first step that might ultimately lead to overhauling the constitution. International Herald Tribune, August 10, 1999 Russian Follies Yeltsin Again Shuffles Heirs to Power Former spook made prime minister PRESIDENT YELTSIN shocked Russia yesterday by sacking another of his governments and nominating the country's security chief, Vladimir Putin, a former Soviet spy, as prime minister and his choice as presidential heir. Mr Yeltsin said in a television address: "I have decided to name a man who in my opinion is capable of uniting society, based on the broadest political forces, and ensuring the continuation of reforms in Russia." He described Mr Putin as a man "who can unite those who will renew great Russia in the 21st century", adding: "I have confidence in him." But few observers rated his chances of becoming president when Mr Yeltsin stands down next summer. Some predicted he would suffer the same fate as the four prime ministers sacked in the past 17 months. Mr Yeltsin's dismissal of Sergei Stepashin yesterday came less than three months after his appointment as premier. In his short period in office, Mr Stepashin had closed a crucial deal with the International Monetary Fund, begun repairing ties with the West damaged by the Kosovo crisis and impressed many people at home and abroad. But none of these achievements counted when measured against the only thing that matters to the Kremlin: the need to find someone - anyone - loyal who can succeed "Grandpa", as Mr Yeltsin's closest aides refer to him, when he steps down. Yesterday they began pushing Mr Putin, 47, as the next president. He worked as a KGB spy in Germany and then for the St Petersburg city council, where he earned the nickname "the Grey Cardinal" for his dour behind-the-scenes style. Tomorrow it could be someone else. Or, despite Mr Yeltsin's assurances that he will be the first president of Russia to transfer power to the next leader peacefully and democratically, elections could be cancelled altogether. For the Kremlin inner circle and Mr Yeltsin himself, power is not something to fight for at the ballot box. It is a commodity to be bought and entrusted only to creatures of their own making. But by plunging the country into chaos again, the Kremlin has shown that it can no longer distinguish between the interests of the country and those of its ruling clan. Thus it does not matter if Russia and its leader become an international laughing stock, that investors are scared away or the rouble plunges, as it did yesterday. The clan comes first. Critics of Mr Yeltsin, 68, said his unpredictable behaviour made him unfit to govern. Boris Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister, told the Echo of Moscow radio station: "It's hard to explain madness. The people have grown tired of watching an ill leader who is not capable of doing his job." But there is method in the Kremlin's madness. It is the logic of a system that concentrates so much power in the president and his entourage that, for fear of what happens afterwards, they cannot let go. Unless a successor can be found who is totally dependent on the current regime, some people linked to the Kremlin are afraid of disgrace, prosecution or worse in the future. Exploiting these anxieties are an exotic mixture of wheeler-dealers and political chancers. Collectively, they are known as "the Family". Boris Berezovsky, the tycoon and self-styled kingmaker of Russian politics, is one of the leading members. Mr Stepashin would have made an ideal presidential candidate - loyal, charismatic and popular in the West. But he made two big mistakes. He took the blame for allowing an alliance between Yuri Luzhkov, the mayor of Moscow who is disliked by the Kremlin, and a host of regional governors to go ahead last week; and a trip to Washington was disastrous because it went down so well with the Americans. A failsafe way to destroy a prime minister is to hint to Mr Yeltsin that he is being feted in America as the man most likely to be the next Russian president. The London Telegraph, August 10, 1999 Currency Markets Yeltsin Gives the Dollar a Boost The consensus is in. Russia is worth 2 cents. Boris Yeltsin, the Russian president, unexpectedly helped the dollar higher yesterday by dissolving his fourth government in 18 months. Mr Yeltsin dismissed Sergei Stepashin, the prime minister, and replaced him with former KGB official Vladimir Putin, whom he also anointed as his preferred successor as president. The news, which broke at the beginning of the European trading session, caused an immediate fall in the euro against the dollar. Analysts said traditional fears that German banks were more vulnerable than most to instability in Russia was responsible for the fall. The dollar also rose against sterling and the yen, both of which were dragged lower by the euro's fall against the US currency. Most of the dollar's gains were trimmed towards the end of the London session as emollient words from Washington helped reassure traders that Mr Yeltsin had not isolated Russia by his actions. The International Monetary Fund reiterated the familiar line that relations with Russia were based on policies, not personalities. By the end of the London session yesterday the euro was on the rise again. It closed at $1.070 against the dollar, having regained more than half the losses arising from the Yeltsin declaration. With the market by now getting used to regular changes of government in Russia, yesterday's euro sell-off had a weary knee-jerk feel to it. Alison Cottrell, chief international economist at Paine Webber in London, said that the effect might have been larger had the D-Mark still been in existence, but that the presence of other countries in the euro-zone muffled the effect. "Even if things were to go seriously bad in Russia, it would probably only take the euro down to $1.05 or so," she said. Even currencies closer to events in Moscow showed little reaction yesterday. The forint barely moved, while the zloty actually strengthened against its basket after recent falls. But the Russian central bank confirmed that it had sold dollars yesterday to shore up the rouble. With instability in Russia and talk spreading of an increase in global risk aversion, some analysts said the mood in the currency markets bore some relation to that in autumn last year. The difference, they said, was that this time the dollar was not likely to be a beneficiary of a flight to quality. "The money market curves have been pricing in a lot of tightening of late," said Divyang Shah, global strategist at IDEAglobal.com in London. "But this weakness of money market instruments could be a result of investors moving into cash, driving up short-term interest rates. Cash could be regaining its status as king in these troubled times." Mr Shah said that unlike last autumn, the effect of a flight out of risky assets and towards the front end of the yield curve was to weaken the dollar. The market was now focusing much more on the financing needs of the US current account deficit, he said. And with the Federal Reserve tightening rather than loosening policy, the dollar was in the firing line. "Our sources suggest the Fed may have been planning a 50 basis point rate rise at the end of this month but was dissuaded by the possible effects on credit spreads," Mr Shah said. Most analysts in the market said that they expected the Fed to raise rates by 25 basis points in August. The impact on the dollar could then depend on whether the Fed adopted an explicit or implied tightening bias, leading the jittery equity market to believe there was more tightening on the way. Many said the most damaging outcome for the dollar would be the prospect of a string of interest rate increases, each one of which would have the potential to prick the asset price bubble. But Jeremy Fand, senior foreign exchange strategist at BankBoston, said that with potential troubles in China, and global growth still fragile, it was not a foregone conclusion that rates would be raised in August. The Financial Times, August 10, 1999 Gold Market IMF Determined to Sell Gold Stanley Fischer keen to give money to poor dictators. The International Monetary Fund said yesterday it was trying to raise money for debt relief without selling some of its gold reserves but refused to rule out eventual gold sales if no alternative could be found. "We're trying very hard to see if there is a way of doing what the gold sales were designed to do without going into the markets," Stanley Fischer, IMF deputy managing director, said after meeting with African and other central bankers in Pretoria, the South African capital. The IMF wants to sell 10m ounces of its gold reserves, worth about $2.5bn, to help finance the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt relief initiative. Under an enhanced version of the plan agreed by industrialised nations in Cologne in June, poor countries would have their debt stock reduced by about $50bn. But South Africa and other gold producers, as well as members of the US Congress, have criticised the proposal to sell gold as counter-productive. One of their arguments is that official sales by central banks and the IMF are undermining the price of an export product on which many poor and indebted countries depend. Gold has fallen by more than $30 an ounce since Britain announced in May that it was selling more than half its gold reserves. Mr Fischer said it was essential for the IMF to finance its contribution to the HIPC plan. "We're going to write off significant amounts of debt and we need to find the money to that," he said, adding that the IMF would try to do it "without actually selling the gold". There were two main obstacles, Mr Fischer said. First, a complicated solution might not accord with the IMF's strict articles of agreement - its constitution. Second, even if the IMF accepted the suggested idea of revaluing its gold - now booked at $46.50 an ounce compared with a market price of more than $250 -a method still had to be found to realise the capital gain so that it could be used for debt relief. "We've got to find a way or ways of liberating that capital gain," Mr Fischer said. "Writing them [the reserves] up in the balance sheet doesn't produce income." Mr Fischer insisted that the IMF could not be blamed for gold's recent weakness since its proposed gold sale was announced two years ago. The lobbying of the US Congress, the South African government and other IMF members had prompted the IMF to attempt to find another solution. The Financial Times, August 10, 1999 There's a Sucker Born Every Minute Day-Trade Firms Accused of Scams Big Daddy Government Comes to the Rescue Everyone must get rich in the stock market. WASHINGTON - Day-trading firms mislead their investor-customers with promises of quick riches, fail to supervise their operations and make improper loans to customers to keep them trading, according to a report released Monday. A related analysis found that 70 percent of customers at one major day-trading firm lost money. The report by the North American Securities Administrators Association resulted from a seven-month investigation of the growing day-trading industry. It comes 11 days after Mark Barton shot and killed nine people at two day-trading firms in Atlanta where he had traded and lost thousands of dollars. ''If day-trading firms want to become part of the mainstream, they need to play by the same rules the rest of Wall Street follows,'' said Peter Hildreth, president of the association, which represents securities regulators in the 50 states, Canada and Mexico. ''If they don't get their act together they will be under increasing regulatory pressure,'' said Mr. Hildreth, who also is New Hampshire's director of securities regulation. In their investigation of a dozen day-trading firms, the regulators found they often lured investors with deceptive advertising about a high success rate and potential wealth, accepted people as customers who weren't suited for day trading and didn't have enough money to invest, improperly loaned money to customers and failed to keep accurate records. In many cases, the report says, customers at day-trading firms loaned each other money, encouraged to do so by the firms. ''Some day traders commonly trade beyond their means,'' the report says. Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, said he will introduce legislation to require day-trading firms to ''clearly and conspicuously'' disclose the risks to their customers. The report said day-trading firms need customers, and the commissions they generate, to cover their high capital and costs, which it estimated at $30,000 per customer. The Electronic Traders Association, an industry group, says most firms make clear to prospective clients that there are risks - and that only disciplined, market-savvy people should try day trading, and then only if they have money they can afford to lose. The trade group has said firms that make day trading sound easy or engage in dubious practices aren't representative of the industry. Some in the day-trading world also say they are victims of a Wall Street old guard threatened by the electronic access that allows individual investors to bypass brokers, thereby ''democratizing'' the industry. The state regulators hired an independent consultant, Ronald Johnson of Palm Harbor, Fla. to look at one firm - All-Tech Investment Group Inc. Mr. Barton shot his victims at All-Tech's Atlanta office and at another firm, Momentum Securities, which had an office across the street. Mr. Johnson, who based his analysis on a sampling of accounts at All-Tech, concluded that 70 percent of all day traders will lose and ''will almost certainly lose everything they invest.'' Only 11.5 percent of traders demonstrated the ability to do profitable short-term trading, according to Mr. Johnson's analysis. Don Bright, director of education for Bright Trading Inc., a leading day-trading firm, said regulations should be tightened and that traders should be better informed about the risks. But he cautioned against too much interference, and he said day traders have been unfairly tarnished by the Atlanta killings. The report said there are 62 day trading firms, with 287 offices around the country - catering to roughly 4,000 to 5,000 traders. These firms provide their trader-customers with computers and high-speed hookups to trading networks and charge commissions for each trade. International Herald Tribune, August 10, 1999 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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